paris burning..

well, i haven't had a lot of time to blog of late.. been busy with work and the other trials of life.. but the fun the francs are experiencing is not lost on me.. it's interesting to see a socially progressive, socialist state who prides itself on immigrant integration experience such strife.. it's also interesting to note the significant organization to these events. could it be that this is the parisian infitada !!??!! lol.. well, maybe not, but this is an interesting article from frontpage magazine..


The French Solution
By Steven PlautFrontPageMagazine.com November 7, 2005

There are very few things as amusing these days as watching the French grapple with their backyard intifada. The suburbs of Paris are now more dangerous than Jenin, and the French are getting their comeuppance for decades of snootiness, anti-American and anti-Israel agitprop, and decades of cowardice.

Paris is now being targeted by violent rioting hordes. For years the French accused American racism of having produced the race riots of the 60s and 70s in the US, as well as the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King business. And the French are sure that only Jewish cussedness and just plain Israeli evil lie behind the behavior of the Palestinian pogromchiki. The Gall of Dem Gauls!Well, now that the French are experiencing their own intifada, we suggest that they resolve the problem using the very same plan that they have been trying for decades to impose upon Israel.

Yes, comrades, it is time to implement the Land for Peace Plan, Paris style. Here it is:
The French Solution: Land for Peace

So after leading the Solidarity-with-the-Baathists movement in Europe during the recent Gulf War, France now enjoys its own intifada by urban Moslem resistance fighters in suburban Paris! Of course, this is all on top of France's long history of supporting Islamist fascism and Palestinian terrorism.A few years back during a trip to Israel, French prime minister Lionel Jospin urged Israel to make concessions for peace. More interesting yet, in documents relating to his visit, Jerusalem was called the ''capital of the Palestinian Authority.'' And what do the French consider to be the capital of Israel? Tel Aviv, of course. A few years later, French President Jacques Chirac used the occasion of his visit in 1996 to announce that ''Syria has a moral right to demand return of the Golan Heights.''

These French politicians may be on to something important. Never one to back down from a challenge, I have prepared a set of proposals for consideration by the French people, so that they not only can preserve peace in Parisian suburbia, but also can achieve a full, lasting, and just peace with their urban resistance opponents.First, until this plan is implemented in full, we must insist that the French government acknowledge that there is no military or police solution to the problems of violence in its suburbs and only through recognizing the legitimacy of the demands of the murderers and rioters outside Paris can the problems be resolved.

Second, we all agree that territory must not be annexed by force. Therefore, we can also agree that Germany has a moral right to demand the return of Alsace-Lorraine, for the French aggression in 1945 and its consequent occupation must not be rewarded. ''A full withdrawal for full peace'' should operate here. Further, France must agree to the return and rehabilitation of all ethnic Germans expelled from Alsace-Lorraine after World Wars I and II, as well as all those they define as their descendents.But this, of course, is just the first step toward a solution, as no aggression can be rewarded and France has much other stolen territory to return. It took Corsica from Genoa, Nice and Savoy from Piedmont; as the successor state, Italy must get back all these lands. By similar token, territories grabbed from the Habsburgs go back to Austria, including Franche-Comte, Artois, and historical Burgundy. The Roussillon area (along the Pyrenees) must be returned to Spain, its rightful owner. And Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine, and Gascony must be returned to their rightful owners, the British royal family.

Not even this is enough for the sake of peace. Brittany and Languedoc must be granted autonomy at once, recognizing the Breton and Occitan Liberation organizations as their legal rulers. This leaves the French government in control over the Ile de France (the area around Paris).That, however, still does not solve the problem of the Holy City of Paris, sacred to artists, gourmets, and adulterers. The Corsicans obviously have a historical claim to the Tomb of the Emperor Napoleon, their famed son, as well as the Invalides complex and beyond. For the sake of peace, is it not too much to ask that Paris be the capital for two peoples? The French authorities must agree to prevent French Parisians from even entering the sacred tomb area, lest this upset the Corsicans.The Saint Chapelle and the Church of Notre Dame, of course, will be internationalized, under joint Vatican-art historical auspices. Indeed, the French should consider it a compliment of the highest order that so many people see Paris as an international city.The French have nothing to complain about. They will enjoy the benefits of peace and retain control of the Champs Elysees.Actually, come to think of it, even the Champs Elysees may be too much. Recalling the French position that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel, perhaps the true French capital is not Paris at all, but Vichy

dem senators toy with the country..

it looks like the games are on... harry reid called the senate in to a closed session to discuss the intelligence used in the lead up to the war in iraq.. this is frankly nothing more than political hackery to try to capitalize on the scooter libby indictment. the wilson report has been debunked and the basis for this closed door session is nothing but the lashing out of the people in charge of the last days of the democratic party..

the democrats know that they cannot win in the marketplace of ideas.. they have been voted out of office en masse and they are now on the brink of losing their hold on the judiciary.. you are witnessing the desperate actions of people without souls.

we are witnessing the leaders in the minority party outwardly work to create further danger for our troops in combat. they are grasping for anything to damage the administration, break the countries will to see the war on terrorism out all for their own political gain.

honestly, this is a uniqe point in history - we are watching a party turn on the country. they are in a full panic and they have gone to the only thing they have - bad news for America is good news for the democratic party.

two years of investigations in the plame case has resulted in all of the people they have gone after remaining unscathed. they have pushed a phony indictment of tom delay.. they have an originalist nominated for the court.. we have had 2 successful elections in iraq.. the democrats are running scared..

while this is funny to a degree for us on the right, it is sad for our country. it is also DANGEROUS for our country. these folks, in a grab for power, are willing to send the country down a perilous path.. almost gleefully.

EU's decision on Christ

the EU has decided that Christ should be spelled with a lower case 'c' starting in august of next year.. please be sure to make this adjustment in your communications with folks in the EU. you won't want to be brought in front of the hague to be tried for improper use of 'c'

article:
European Unionlowercases 'Christ'

Brussels' grammar rule says title to be spelled with small 'c' in future
Posted: November 1, 20052:12 p.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
A new grammar rule devised by the European Union in Brussels stipulates the word "Christ" shall be spelled with a lowercase "c."
The rule was part of an orthography reform published in October, reported Canada Free Press.
The paper cites a German newssite, Kath.net, in reporting that the new guidelines also indicate the Dutch word for "Jews" (Joden) is to be spelled with a capital "J" when referring to nationality and with a lower-case "j" when referring to the religion.

The EU changes become mandatory next August. There are no penalties set out for those who insist on continuing to spell Christ with a capital "C."
Canada Free Press noted the title of Javier Solana, secretary general of the EU, was still to be spelled with capital letters.
Many Europeans have long discarded belief in God and in fact believe more deeply in ghosts than in a deity.
A new poll finds two-thirds of Britons said they believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits, but only 55 percent said they believe in the existence of God.
Meanwhile, 26 percent believe in UFOs, 19 percent in reincarnation and 4 percent in the Loch Ness Monster, Ananova reported.

this shouldn't be overly surprising.. the enlightened europeans have been godless for some time.. frankly, religion is a troublesome for these folks.. you have the Christians with all of these rules, muslims with all of these bombs and riots and scarves and jews stealing everyones money.. the euro's have very little need for it all.. man is god for these folks. the simpletons of this world just won't understand until they (the eu) has the power to dictate it all to them.. the infallibility of man is the core of their belief system.. i suppose we'll all see just how fallible man is afterall.

why did geena davis nominate alito ??

A great article from the Washington Times..

The left gets what it asked for
November 1, 2005
LOS ANGELES. California is as far from the reality where the rest of us live as you can get and still keep your feet dry. Californians think Geena Davis, the star of the new television fantasy "Commander in Chief," really is the commander in chief. So when the ground shifted yesterday with the nomination of Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court -- a solid 7 on the Richter scale -- nearly everyone here wondered why that nice, sensible President Davis would have done something like that. But even here attention shifted from the headaches of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the looming Armageddon on the distant other shore. The Terminator's four ballot initiatives to make California more governable are by all accounts becalmed in a sea of indifference, anyway. The early action in Washington is media skirmishing, as the players jostle and jiggle for position against the day when it will be time to lock and load. The high priests of secularism are desperate to protect the rite of abortion, which is to the noisily devout of the left what the doctrine of the Virgin Birth is to orthodox Christianity. Hysteria and hyperbole are the reigning emotions of the holy high rollers. "Abortion will be the first item Judge Alito and I will discuss," says Sen. Arlen Specter, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who never misses a chance to shoot at his friends. Kate Michelman, the past president of NARAL-Pro-Choice America, detected something shiny and significant at her feet, and to her chagrin, it was not a suction pump. "Now the gauntlet has been, I think, thrown down." Barbara Boxer, the senator from California who knows something about appeasing red-hots on her flanks, says, "This nomination is aimed at appeasing the most right-wing elements of the president's political base." Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, eager to provoke, calls the nomination a "needless provocation." Teddy Kennedy, the Massachusetts answer to the prayer of every young woman in distress, describes Samuel Alito as a risk to fundamental American freedoms. (Impeachment to follow?) The curious Democratic reaction to the nomination of Harriet Miers is rendered transparent by the nomination of Judge Alito. The nice things Democratic senators said about her, which stank of mendacity to anyone trying to get a deep breath at the time, were calculated as harmless enough because the Democrats were confident the conservatives would force the president to withdraw a nominee no one wanted. They're continuing to say harmless and insincere nice things about her to demonstrate what reasonable, mellow fellows they were. The usual echoes in the media are contributing the bass (and base) notes to the angry chorus. John Roberts, the CBS correspondent who once imagined himself big enough to fill Dan Rather's BVDs, couldn't get his mind out of his pants yesterday and used a vulgar sexual allusion to demand of the president's press spokesman whether the choice of Judge Alito was merely the president trying to find satisfaction with "sloppy seconds." Ron Fournier rose to the defense of Miss Miers in an Associated Press dispatch, chiding Republicans for demanding that Judge Alito "get a vote in the Senate -- something they denied [Miss] Miers." The first volley at Samuel Alito is that he dissented when his colleagues of the 3rd Circuit declined to evict the nannies of Planned Parenthood from the bedrooms of strangers, ruling that a wife doesn't have to tell her husband when she aborts their child. A generation ago, cries that the Democratic Party had become the party of "abortion, acid and amnesty" sank George McGovern and set up decades of Republican dominance. Acid and amnesty are but dim echoes of that vanished era, but "abortion" is the rallying cry that unites what's left of the party of FDR, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy. It doesn't work. The Democrats tried to cast the '04 presidential campaign as a referendum on "abortion rights," and now we see how risky such a strategy can be. John Kerry, like Al Gore before him, warned that if George W. Bush was elected, he would appoint conservative men and women to the Supreme Court. How right they were. The Democrats got a president, but only in Hollywood and only for an hour once a week.

Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times.

it's all about the o

it's all about the o.. sometimes, it's about the office, other times it's about books and the home.. and sometimes it's all about the gold..

sorry, i got carried away.. but this week's letter to study is 'O' - as in ORIGINALIST !!

in this article, edward whelan brings up some great points - of which, this is one:

The term "originalism" identifies the traditional, common-sense principle that the meaning of various provisions of the Constitution (and of other laws) is to be determined in accordance with the meaning they bore at the time they were promulgated. The status of originalism as the only legitimate method (or class of methods) of constitutional interpretation inheres in the very nature of the Constitution as law. As Chief Justice Marshall explained in his landmark 1803 opinion in Marbury v. Madison, the Constitution is "committed to writing" so that its "limits may not be mistaken or forgotten." To disregard its limits is to "reduce to nothing what we have deemed the greatest improvement on political institutions — a written constitution."

It is significant that the term "originalism" appears to be of relatively recent vintage. The reason for this is not that there is anything novel about originalism. Precisely the opposite. Until recent years, originalism had been so unchallenged as constitutional orthodoxy that there was no reason to develop a term that would distinguish it from any rival. As Justice Scalia has put it, "in the past, nonoriginalist opinions have almost always had the decency to lie, or at least to dissemble, about what they were doing." But the rise of the "living Constitution" — the Orwellian euphemism that liberal activists have used to pretend that the Constitution has somehow "grown" to entrench forever their own policy preferences — made necessary a label for what everyone had previously recognized as elementary.

In these days of judicial nominees, i think that it's important to point out what we need on the court. This is very well written.

the lies of joe wilson..

in these days of charges and counter charges concerning the 'outing of valerie plame,' i think it's important to really point out who is doing the lying here. now, scooter looks to have fallen in to the martha stewart trap of not telling the whole truth.. but lets look at who is really not telling the truth around here...

Wilson Insisted That The Vice President’s Office Sent Him To Niger:
Wilson Said He Traveled To Niger At CIA Request To Help Provide Response To Vice President’s Office. “In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney’s office had questions about a particular intelligence report. … The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president’s office.” (Joseph C. Wilson, Op-Ed, “What I Didn’t Find In Africa,” The New York Times, 7/6/03)

Lie. Joe's wife sent him. Additionally, let's make sure it is noted that he went live with this in an op-ed before his wife was 'outed' - obviously a major concern on his part that the wife that sent him would not be found out. yawn.

Wilson Claimed His Wife Did Not Suggest He Travel To Niger To Investigate Reports Of Uranium Deal; Instead, Wilson Claims It Came Out Of Meeting With CIA. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “Among other things, you had always said, always maintained, still maintain your wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA officer, had nothing to do with the decision to send to you Niger to inspect reports that uranium might be sold from Niger to Iraq. … Did Valerie Plame, your wife, come up with the idea to send you to Niger?” Joe Wilson: “No. My wife served as a conduit, as I put in my book. When her supervisors asked her to contact me for the purposes of coming into the CIA to discuss all the issues surrounding this allegation of Niger selling uranium to Iraq.” (CNN’s “Late Edition,” 7/18/04)

More lies.. proof:

But Senate Select Committee On Intelligence Received Not Only Testimony But Actual Documentation Indicating Wilson’s Wife Proposed Him For Trip. “Some CPD, [CIA Counterproliferation Division] officials could not recall how the office decided to contact the former ambassador, however, interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicate that his wife, a CPD employee, suggested his name for the trip. The CPD reports officer told Committee staff that the former ambassador’s wife ‘offered up his name’ and a memorandum to the Deputy Chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002, from the former ambassador’s wife says, ‘my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.’” (Select Committee On Intelligence, “Report On The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments On Iraq,” U.S. Senate, 7/7/04)

A Month Before The Bob Novak And Matthew Cooper Articles Ever Came Out, Wilson Told The Washington Post That Previous Intelligence Reports About Niger Were Based On Forged Documents:
In June Of 2003, Wilson Told The Washington Post “The Niger Intelligence Was Based On Documents That Had Clearly Been Forged Because ‘The Dates Were Wrong And The Names Were Wrong.’” (Susan Schmidt, “Plame’s Input Is Cited On Niger Mission,” The Washington Post, 7/10/04)

However, “The [Senate Select Committee On Intelligence] Report … Said Wilson Provided Misleading Information To The Washington Post Last June [12th, 2003].” (Susan Schmidt, “Plame’s Input Is Cited On Niger Mission,” The Washington Post, 7/10/04)
Senate Select Committee On Intelligence Unanimous Report: “The Former Ambassador Said That He May Have ‘Misspoken’ To The Reporter When He Said He Concluded The Documents Were ‘Forged.’” (Senate Select Committee On Intelligence, “Report On The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Assessments On Iraq,” 7/7/04)

This is just a small sampling of the lies that wilson has gone forward with. He is a well documented partisan: (even though he verbally claims differently)

Joe Wilson Is A Registered Democrat. (District Of Columbia Voter Registrations, Accessed 7/14/05)
Joseph Wilson Has Donated Over $8,000 To Democrats Including $2,000 To John Kerry For President In 2003, $1,000 To Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) HILLPAC In 2002 And $3,000 To Al Gore In 1999. (The Center For Responsive Politics Website, www.opensecrets.org, Accessed 7/12/05)
Wilson Endorsed John Kerry For President In October 2003 And Advised The Kerry Campaign. (David Tirrell-Wysocki, “Former Ambassador Wilson Endorses Kerry In Presidential Race,” The Associated Press, 10/23/03)
“[Wilson] Admits ‘It Will Be A Cold Day In Hell Before I Vote For A Republican, Even For Dog Catcher.’” (Scott Shane, “Private Spy And Public Spouse Live At Center Of Leak Case,” The New York Times, 7/5/05)

obviously, these things are not covered in the press.. nor is the fact that his report was not considered to be factual or worthwhile..

Wilson Claims His Trip Proved There Was Nothing To The Uranium “Allegations.” “I knew that [Dr. Rice] had fundamentally misstated the facts. In fact, she had lied about it. I had gone out and I had undertaken this study. I had come back and said that this was not feasible. … This government knew that there was nothing to these allegations.” (NBC’s, “Meet The Press,” 5/2/04)

yet

CIA Said Wilson’s Findings Did Not Resolve The Issue. “Because [Wilson’s] report, in our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution, but we did not brief it to the president, vice president or other senior administration officials. We also had to consider that the former Nigerien officials knew that what they were saying would reach the U.S. government and that this might have influenced what they said.” (Central Intelligence Agency, “Statement By George J. Tenet, Director Of Central Intelligence,” Press Release 7/11/03)

and

The Butler Report Claimed That The President’s State Of the Union Statement On Uranium From Africa, “Was Well-Founded.” “We conclude that, on the basis of the intelligence assessments at the time, covering both Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the statements on Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa in the Government’s dossier, and by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, were well-founded. By extension, we conclude also that the statement in President Bush’s State of the Union Address of 28 January 2003 that: ‘The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.’ was well-founded.” (The Rt. Hon. The Lord Butler Of Brockwell, “Review Of Intelligence, On Weapons Of Mass Destruction,” 7/14/04)

make up your own mind.. the mainstream press is not covering the lack of veracity on joe wilson's part.. facts speak for themselves.

it's alito !!

the white house apparently received the message.. let's do this thing right. let's stop playing around, trying to make nice with the other side of the aisle. lets take the mandate provided us and make our mark... after a series of missteps, the administration is turning the boat back toward the right. first came the comments on the border situation.. then came the miers withdrawal. now, we have a certified judicial conservative nominated for the supreme court.

alito's record and skills are beyond reproach. we are going to see the democrats crank up the smear machine to new highs, however. alito has ruled in cases concerning husband notification of abortion in pa. he ruled in a dissenting opinion that husbands should be notified prior to their wifes getting an abortion. mind you, this isn't an approval from the husband, but just notification. scalia quoted alito in his dissent when this case was decided at the supreme court. now, i'm not sure about you, but i that when you consider things like parental and spouse notification on abortion, it makes far more common sense than the on-demand ability to rip a baby apart in the womb at any part of the pregnancy.

i think we will see further alienation of the liberal left and democratic party when we start to see the confirmation process unfold. in the marketplace of ideas, the dems lose every time. this nominee will force them to pull their masks off and expose their absence of conscience. this country has grown weary of trying to understand people who abuse children and murder neighbors while protecting the right to kill unborn babies. the rights of the guilty far outweigh the rights of the innocent in some peoples mind.. unborn children are viewed as 'inconvenient' and same sex marriage is a violation of civil rights.. their views are indefensible for the moral, educated citizen... and once again, they will lose in the public arena.

bush has taken some major strides in bringing back the folks who have supported him up to this point.. lets all get ready for the fight.

bush lied, people died..

next time your liberal friends throw out this cliche, i think it's important to remind them of the things their own political icons had to say about iraqi WMD's..

"Saddam's goal ... is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed. - Madeline Albright, 1998

"Iraq made commitments after the Gulf War to completely dismantle all weapons of mass destruction, and unfortunately, Iraq has not lived up to its agreement." - Barbara Boxer, November 8, 2002

"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." - Bill Clinton, 1998

"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." - Nancy Pelosi, December 16, 1998

"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." -- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." -- Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sept. 27, 2002

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members . . . . It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons." Sen. Hillary Clinton, Oct 10, 2002.

and there are many more where those came from.. it's important to see the true motivation of these folks.. again, while they wrap themselves in the american flag, they make haste to burn it when you're not looking. their actions are so loud, i cannot hear what they're saying.

goodbye harriet..

goodbye harriet meyers.. we never really knew you at all.. candle in the wind... blah blah blah.. well, as a conservative, i couldn't be more pleased by the move harriet 'made' to withdraw her nomination. i've heard lots of speculation as to why this occured and what really happened.. but the bottom line is this - we're headed for a good old fashioned schoolyard fight over court nominations. i have faith that g-dub will nominate someone like alito or luttig.. i think either one of those two would be anathema to the liberal do-gooders like schmucker and turbin..
regardless, we need to have a vibrant national debate on the role of the court in our country. we need to get the issues on the table and out in front of everyone. once they are there, as always, conservatives will win in the arena of ideas. taking international law into consideration to interpret our constitution is unacceptable. bending the words of the framers like silly puddy is not acceptable either. the words mean what they mean and if you don't feel like the constitution has a say in that particular area- give the decision back to the people.

so, goodbye harriet. we hardly knew you at all... and based on some of your writings, it is probably better that way.

coverage of the constitution ??

well, we just had a country we liberated vote (again), at the risk of their lives (again), and the constitution passes the vote.. and there is not a shred of coverage... not one ounce of coverage on this topic. yet, you cannot turn on the news, listen to the radio, read the paper, without seeing 2000 soldiers killed.. it's not presented in the context of the progress being made in iraq.. it's presented as if this is another vietnam.

the press in this country is so blatantly biased against this administration (and country, for that matter) that it makes you sick. they have plummeting ratings, people are fed up..

we have had 2 successful votes in iraq - with more of a % of registered voters voting than in our own country.. iraqi's are risking their lives to vote. we can't get off our couches enough to care to vote.

yet, the coverage of this event would have you believe that iraq is a total failure.. we are losing the fight for democracy. nothing could be farther from the truth - and the proof is in the sheer numbers of iraqi's voting on their constitution.

i think it is sickening to see people in this country, calling themselves americans, saying they 'support the troops', openly hoping for more dead, no progress, more terrorist attacks.. their hatred for the administration outweighs their love for their country. frankly, in their minds, we should stop being a country.. we should conform to the enlightened folks in europe and the rest of the world. these same intellectuals seem to forget we won our independence from that way of thinking over 225 years ago.

Iran: Israel must be 'wiped off the map'

iranian leader mahmoud ahmadinejad is outwardly calling for the total destruction of israel.. he is calling for a final solution for the ongoing war in the land of palestine. this should not be considered unusual, as iranians are always calling for death to israel and america.. but this guy is a little different.. he's working actively on a nuclear option for his armed forces... and his supporting imam has already spoken of how it would only take 1 nuclear bomb to wipe israel off the map.. noting that it would take a lot of nuclear weapons to destroy all of islam..

so, now we have a nuclear nut case calling for the destruction of israel in public. this is going to be an interesting next few years in world history. israel is not going to tolerate being threatened with it's destruction by a soon-to-be nuclear state.. we know iran and russia will attempt an invasion of israel at some point.. it's pretty interesting to watch it all unfold.

the article:

Israel should be 'wiped off the map': Iran president

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the president told a conference in Tehran on Wednesday entitled 'The World without Zionism'.

"The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land," he said.
"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
His comments were the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has called for Israel's eradication, even though such slogans are still regularly used at regime rallies.
Addressing some 4,000 students gathered in an interior ministry conference hall, Ahmadinejad also called for Palestinian unity, resistance and a point "where the annihilation of the Zionist regime will come".
"The Islamic umma (community) will not allow its historic enemy to live in its heartland," he said in the fiery speech that centered on an "historic war between the oppressor and the world of Islam".
The term "oppressor" is used by the clerical regime to refer to the United States.
"We should not settle for a piece of land," he said of Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip.
"Anyone who signs a treaty which recognises the entity of Israel means he has signed the surrender of the Muslim world," Ahmadinejad said.
"Any leaders in the Islamic umma who recognise Israel face the wrath of their own people."
Ahmadinejad, a veteran of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards, took office in August after scoring a landslide win in a June presidential election.
His tone represents a major change from that of former president Mohammad Khatami, whose favoured topic was "dialogue among civilisations" and who led an effort to improve Iran's relations with the West.
But Ahmadinejad instead spoke of an "historic war".
"It dates backs hundreds of years. Sometimes Islam has advanced. Sometimes nobody was winning. Unfortunately over the past 300 years, the world of Islam has been in retreat," he lamented.
"One hundred years ago the last trench of Islam fell, when the oppressors went towards the creation the Zionist regime. It is using it as a fort to spread its aims in the heart of the Islamic world."

2000

2000 Soldiers Killed..
well we've reached 2000 soldiers killed mark set by all of the blame america first crowd. i'm certain we'll see the likes of cindy sheehan locking herself to the fence at the whitehouse and continuing to dance on her son's grave. there will be parties held by the left wing nut jobs celebrating another dead soldier because, once again, what's good for america is not good for them.. i'm sure we'll hear the likes of kennedy and durbin spouting off their holier than thou nonsense.. and all of this celebrating and revelry will be at the expense of the families and friends of the heros who serve in the united states military.

it should make anyone who has any pride in this country and for the values we stand for sick to their stomach that we have people who would guide this country delighting in the death of our soldiers.. triumphant in bad news for america. yet, they are out there.. not in the numbers you'd think, but they're out there.. supported via a biased media and internationalist money. if we are to weigh the stories of 2000 dead vs. successful passage of the iraqi constitution, is there any question which one will get more airplay ??

we've been in iraq since march of 2003 - 2000 dead. to compare - the battle of iwo jima in WWII, there were 6,821 american deaths... in less than a month and a half. 23,573 total casualties from a total of 70,000 marines..

the miserable 'intellectualism' which has taken over our media and the democratic party (and some republicans) has taken our will away. the people of this country are exposed to the negative aspects of our war on terror over and over and over.. is there any wonder the mainstream media has plummeting ratings ??

if our state of mind would have been the same during WW2, that 'greatest generation' would have never been given the chance to be great.

piggy banks ?? OUTLAWED !!

well shucks.. after a few subway and bus bombings, what would you do to celebrate the cuture of your muslim friends ?? well, you'd ban piggy banks !! that's what you'd do.

the brits have taken PC-ness to new lows.. banks in britain are now banning images or the use of piggy banks due to the fact that pigs are repulsive to our muslim friends. unsurprisingly, a muslim spokesperson championed the cause.

the article:

British banks are prohibiting piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims.
The United Kingdom's Halifax and NatWest banks have banned the ubiquitous time-honored symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising, the British paper Daily Express reports.
Muslims do not eat pork, as Islamic culture views the pig to be an impure animal.
Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, endorsed the bank initiative.

"This is a sensitive issue and I think the banks are simply being courteous to their customers,” he said.
This latest from the world of the politically correct follows the recent banning of novelty pig calendars from a U.K. council office — in case they offend Muslim staff.
Workers in the benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, reportedly were told to remove or cover up all pig-related items, including toys, porcelain figures, calendars and even a tissue box featuring Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet.
Officials acted after a Muslim complained about pig-shaped stress relievers delivered to the council in the run-up to the Islamic festival of Ramadan.
Councilor Mahbubur Rahman, a practicing Muslim, backed the ban, saying "It’s a tolerance of people’s beliefs.”

a sick sign of the times..

just when you thought your kids couldn't get involved in anything worse, we have this from the Jerusalem Post.. the actions themselves are sickening - the ages of the children involved is nothing short of unfathomable.. so this is what 12 year olds are doing these days..

6 minors charged with sodomy, abuse
By DAN IZENBERG

The Central District Attorney's Office on Wednesday filed an indictment against six teenagers ranging in age from 12 to 15 for committing sodomy and abusing a boy, now 11 years old, over a period of more than two years.
"The actions of the accused arouse a sense of revulsion," said Tel Aviv District Court Judge Chaled Kabub during the hearing in which he was asked to remand the suspects in custody until the end of the proceedings. "They knew the victim very well but did not spare his body or soul as they perpetrated extremely severe sexual offenses while resorting to extreme violence and humiliating him... Even the wildest and sickest imagination cannot come up with the despicable acts that these youths perpetrated."
According to the indictment, one of the accused is 12 years old, four are 13 years old and the alleged ringleader was 15. The 15-year-old is being detained separately from the other suspects. A court ordered his mother placed under house arrest on suspicion that she sent people to threaten a 15-year-old girl, the victim's neighbor, who persuaded the victim to complain to the police.
The indictment includes 11 separate charges involving incidents in which various suspects used violence in order to force the young boy to have oral sex with them. Two other charges against the 15-year-old included attempts to tamper with the police investigation and threatening a policeman.
According to the first charge, two of the suspects were at the home of one of them together with the victim some time in July 2005.
One of the suspects ordered the boy to suck the penis of his friend. The boy refused and started to cry, so they beat him with their hands and a skipping rope. They also stole his shoes and locked the door of the apartment. One of the suspects grabbed the victim's head and one hand and hit him on his back. Meanwhile, the other grabbed the victim's other hand, placed it on his penis and peed on it. They then tied the boy up with the skipping rope and continued to beat him.
Afterwards, they kicked him towards the bathroom with such force that the boy struck his head on the bottom of the toilet bowl. The abuse continued until the boy was forced to commit oral sex with one of the suspects.
Many of the other charges in the indictment are similar in their violence and cruelty.
In one of the charges directed solely at the 15-year-old, the youth allegedly told the policeman who was questioning him that, "in Russia, we take down people like you and if I can, I will do the same." He also threatened the investigator that "you won't last long," and "if I want to, I'll get to you and I'll know everything about you." He also told the policeman, "You'll pay for this."

GET OUT !!!

finally !! someone in a position of authority has stepped up and thrown down the gauntlet. michael chertoff came out and has said that the goal of dhs is to find and send home EVERY SINGLE ILLEGAL ALIEN IN THE UNITED STATES. now, we all know that finding and returning 20 million people is a task which is nothing short of impossible,.. but the words themselves may do more good than anything else that has occured in this immigration 'battle'. with just the prospect of return, illegal immigrants may think twice before heading this way.

this about face by the administration is due to the people of this country. never have i seen a topic go from zero traction to a department head championing it in such a short time. i really believe the press given to the minutemen spurred the debate and it has spread like wildfire across the country. it has burned so brightly that cabinet level officials can no longer avoid it. state governors can no longer avoid it. this problem is pandemic and it threatens the very foundation of our nation.

pakistan quake kills thousands of terrorists..

it's interesting to see what countries do when tragedy pulls their terrorist pants down..

'Quake killed over 3000 militants'
Onkar Singh in New Delhi October 17, 2005 17:57 IST

Intelligence sources have confirmed that over 3000 terrorists who were waiting for an opportunity to cross into India from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were killed in the October 8 earthquake.
A top intelligence officer told rediff.com that while hundreds of terrorists were killed because of the huge buildings crumbling, most others were killed due to massive explosions that took place because of fire breaking out in their ammunition dumps.

"This was nature's way of closing down terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," the officer said.
According to him, the figure of 3000 was tentative and the number of militants killed could be much more.
"Several former and present minister of the PoK government were also killed due to quake," he said.
Though India offered to fly helicopters and rescue the injured from Muzaffarabad in particular, Pakistan government refused permission as it feared that the move would let out find the truth out about the training camps, the officer said.

big, bad weather..

wicked weather.. ya just gotta love it. whether it's flooding in the northeast, hurricanes in the southeast, drought in the southwest.. there seems to be more and more big weather lately. once being scared to death of storms as a child, (lightning hitting the house will scar a young lad) i now love it. it's just not a ski trip if we don't get several feet of snow.. i need a blizzard to make it complete. just like spring time in texas.. if we don't have some big weather, i almost feel cheated. (obviously i don't work for an insurance company)

well now, we may have something to look forward to.. according to livescience, the weather over the next 100 years (like we'll make it that far..) is gonna get bigger and bigger. the earth is getting warmer.. and no, i'm not a global warming nut.. the earth is getting warmer because the sun is getting hotter !! see, it's not that SUV or your dairy cow's methane.. but the sun is getting hotter, brighter.. the earth is getting warmer.. and warmer earth = bigger weather.

according to this article in livescience, there will be a 10-20% increase in rain and snow.. and the biggest storms will be where air masses converge.. texas ?? anyway, the long and the short of it is this - along with your illegal immigration, floundering president, homeland terrorism and supreme court nominees, you can add some more big weather to your future.

george bush, the border, the base..

with 2 parents in education and a lot of friends as teachers.. and especially after talking to a friend who is teaching down on the border recently, i have to reiterate the absolute need to re-evaluate just about everything concerning the border, education and immigration in america..

there is an article recently in the arizona republic talking about how the language gap in public schools is widening.. the illegal immigration problem is obviously exacerbating this problem. in the border schools in san diego, many students LIVE IN MEXICO !! and attend US PUBLIC SCHOOLS. help me understand how their tax dollar contributions are assisting in paying for teachers, materials and facilities. states are going to go bankrupt trying to keep up. students don't even try to learn.. parents don't speak english and typically all of the children are from low income homes with mutliple children and little supervision. education is not a priority, meaning that this problem will just multiply as these children have children and repeat the process again and again. state leaders have to put their mark on their education systems and prevent this from happening. free education is far from it.. and when more and more people are using resources and not contributing to society and the tax base, it has to be stopped.

texas gov. rick perry has just come out stating that there is an emergency in the state.. he's going to move forward with plans to utilize the texas national guard.. all of this in response to the lack of assistance from washington.

border states have been suffering for some time.. i really credit the minutemen for bringing visibility to something we in border states have known for some time. since their project took off, the nation has begun to face the issues head on. citizens are taking the issue in their own hands because no one else will.

the leftists have come out calling them vigilantes.. the aclu has sent their throngs of unemployed activists to monitor them.. even the president has had some choice words against these citizens.. but because this cause is just and important, the fire that has been started will not soon be quelled. as a matter of fact, we're seeing some democrats jump to the right of republicans on this issue for political gain. the people are fed up.

we really need to examine the leadership of our president here. he knew first hand about the issue when he was governor of texas.. however, out of political 'necessity', he turned a blind eye toward to the problem.. endearing him to business leaders as well as the hispanic community. heck, he even spoke in spanish in multiple settings in the state. g-dub has talked extensively about the political capital he earned in the past election, but with the actions in his second term, that capital has been expended on meaningless things. he is losing his conservative base in this term.. he is losing credibility among those who supported him most.. his closest ally in texas, rick perry is now coming out and sounding the alarm.. yet again, nothing is done on the border issue.

with out of control spending, a bad israel policy, a bad immigration policy and with the recent nomination of his buddy harriet to the supreme court, he is going to be a president without a nation.. alienating the people who put him in power and also facing down a vitriolic left who wants him out of power.. that combination could spell a disastrous last years of his presidency.. rove and company need to get a pulse from the base and act on it. if this course continues, bush will be rendered inept and lame.

THE GATES OF HELL !!! who knows the entry code ?

syria is back at the top of the blog.. in response to the united states speculating that we may attack inside syrian borders to stop the flow of non-iraqi's streaming in to iraq to man the insurgency, they have borrowed from their baathist bretheren to spout off some hyperbole.. 'the gates of hell will open' if the usa attacks, says one official.

now, i'm not sure exactly where the gates of hell are located.. apparently they're under syrian control, however. this is typical sabre rattling in the middle east.. all with one caveat.. for those Christians out there who take a literal interpretation of the Bible, there is an interesting little prophesy about the destruction of Damascus.. (the burden of Damascus as it is commonly known) Isaiah 17 (The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap) outlines the destruction of Damascus - which is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world.. which, by the way, has never been destroyed up to this point in history.

now, fast forward to today.., we have a situation where syria continues to funnel insurgents through their borders.. we have syria and iran funding hizbullah which is threatening israel.. i would presume that any action against syria would result in an attack on israel, which wouldn't be beneficial for syria to say the least.. especially if syria utilizes chemical or biological weapons. (they have their own stash in addition to the possible cache of iraq's that were rumored to have been shipped to syria prior to the iraqi liberation)

here's the article from the daily star in lebanon:

Syria warns 'gates of hell will open' if U.S. attacks
By Leila Hatoum Daily Star staff
Wednesday, October 12, 2005

BEIRUT: In the latest official Syrian comment on the increasing pressure on Damascus, Premier Naji Otari said "all the gates of hell will open on the U.S. if it attempts to attack Syria." Otari was replying to a report this week in Newsweek magazine revealing that Washington had debated launching military strikes inside Syria against camps used by insurgents operating in Iraq.
Citing unnamed government sources, the magazine reported that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had managed to block the proposal during a meeting of senior U.S. officials on October 1.

Speaking to reporters in Shanon, Ireland, on a four-nation tour, Rice said: "I am not going to comment on internal deliberations in the administration."
Otari also accused Lebanese officials of being unable to make an independent decision, saying they were answerable to the French and U.S. ambassadors to Lebanon.
Addressing his Lebanese counterpart Fouad Siniora, the Syrian premier said: "Apparently Siniora forgot all of what we have discussed when he visited Damascus after his recent return from a visit to the U.S."

Siniora had held talks with several officials in Damascus to resolve a border dispute between the two countries in June.
Pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reported yesterday Otari had refused to answer repeated phone calls from Siniora on Monday.
The paper quoted unidentified "informed Syrian sources in Damascus" as saying the Assad regime believes Siniora has reneged on promises he made to the Syrian president during a visit on July 31.
The regime is particularly outraged over Siniora's allegation in a recent interview with The Washington Post that all of Lebanon is convinced that Syria engineered the Hariri murder.
In other related media responses to the mounting pressure on Damascus, Syrian daily Tishrin said in an editorial yesterday that Washington is criticizing Syria to cover its own policy failures in the Middle East.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State David Welch had warned the Assad regime Sunday that it was not heeding calls to change its behavior in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
Welch has been touring the Middle East, meeting with leaders in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He is expected to hold talks with Lebanese officials today.
"Barely a day passes without such accusations as if Syria has become an excuse for the
U.S. faults in the region," the editorial said.

Separately, Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor heading the international investigation into Hariri's murder, was expected to reach Beirut late last night from Larnaca, where he is placing the final touches on his report according to sources close to the Lebanese judiciary.
Mehlis moved his base of operations to the Cypriot port town early in the day citing security concerns.

But the source said: "Some experts from Mehlis' team are still in Lebanon, and Mehlis will join them for further discussions with Lebanese officials before presenting his report."
The nature of Mehlis' report has spurred mounting speculations, fears and an ongoing public row between Lebanese and Syrian officials.

In local developments, Lebanese Justice Minister Charles Rizk held several meetings with various ambassadors to Lebanon in which he tried to gather support for an extension of the international investigation's term to allow it to provide support for the Lebanese judiciary.
The UN team's mandate is set to expire on October 25. UN chief Kofi Annan has refused an oral request from Siniora made last week, saying he would only consider an official written request from the government.

In the meantime, the Center to Protect Journalists in New York has presented a letter to Annan asking him to include the attacks Lebanese journalists May Chidiac and Samir Qassir in Mehlis' mission.

"The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the UN Security Council to expand its probe into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri to include the alarming attacks against Lebanese journalists," the letter said.

the religion of peace..

just got this link

this shows all islamic terrorist attacks in the world since 9/11..

one word.. wow.

it's just for electricity.. i swear to allah !!

middle east newsline is reporting that iran has fitted it's shish-ka-bob 3 missiles with nuclear capable warheads.. these are variants of the no-dong missiles that north korea has been giving to rogue regimes around the world. you'll note, as time goes forward, iran's strategy for frustrating the world community concerning it's nuclear weapons will follow the blueprint north korea has already drawn. negotiate, leave the table, negotiate, agree, withdraw, agree, reneg, leave the table, renegotiate, ask for concessions, etc.. we know how it will unfold. we also know that israel is prepared to act unilaterally against iran if the euro's can't get it done.. they've already warned us we won't like it if they have to do it..

the story:

LONDON [MENL] -- Iran was said to have designed a nuclear warhead for the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile.
The United States has briefed several nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency of an Iranian program to develop a nuclear warhead for the Shihab-3. Diplomatic sources said the U.S. briefers asserted that from 2001 to 2003 Iran designed and developed a circular warhead that could detonate at an altitude meant to ensure optimal damage.
An empty nuclear warhead was said to have been installed on the Shihab-3 for two missile tests in mid-2004. The sources said the warhead appeared similar to a Soviet-based intercontinental missile deployed by Moscow in the 1960s.
The sources said that in August the U.S. delegation briefed such countries as China, India, Russia, and South Africa ahead of last month's IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna. They said the briefing helped persuade some members to either support or abstain in the vote on a British resolution to refer the Iranian nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council. India supported the British resolution, which did not set a date for the submission of the Iranian file.

the chicken flew..

never has saying something that is a part of our every day vocabulary fostered such world wide fear.. what did the bird do ?? the bird flu. i mean flew.. but i do mean flu. as i catch up on the events going on around the world, there are a couple of things in common.. the first is terrorism.. terrorism, terrorism everywhere. we've got young white muslims giving a new meaning to BOOMER sooner in oklahoma.. bombs at georgia tech and ucla.. new york subway bombings (which turned out to be a hoax).. and when we turn to page 2, it's bird flu.

there is a virus called H5N1 - much less catchy than some of the other virus names we have to talk about.. (hanta virus & W97M.Pacol.A to name a couple) anyway, so we have this bird flu, which once again originates out of southeast asia - (see SARS) and we have some radical action being taken by governments in asia and even europe to try to keep it from spreading further. now the united states has begun preparation for a virus that is spread by birds to humans by contact. if you have chickens in your back yard, you may have a problem.. the rest of us - no sweat, right ??

apparently that is not the case.. with chicken wings on every corner and chick-fil-a and KFC across every street - we may get the flu from our chicken sandwiches.. no, ok, that's hyperbole too..

legitimately, there is a fear that this virus will mutate and will be able to spread from person to person. . now THIS could be a serious problem. if that were to become the case, there would be significant economic and human impact.. PETA's cries of killing chickens will go unheard. it's good to see that the usa is starting to plan ahead for a possible world pandemic. it's interesting to think of what would come of our nation if we were to have widespread quarantines, freedom of travel being restricted..

there has been other hysteria associated with things like y2k and SARS (i was in toronto for the SARS phenomenon) and there hasn't been much that has come from that in a global sense.. so hopefully this will be another minor bump in the road.. however, should it unfold in to something more sinister, it would be a good idea to have a couple of weeks of food on hand just in case..

as a matter of fact, just go read ,this from the WHO.. not 'the who' but the other WHO.. world health organization.. they have prepared a statement on strategic actions just for you.

billy clinton, the saudi's and terror..

louis freeh has gone back and opened the dirty door of the clinton presidency.. i always said that the president who won after clinton was going to pay dearly for years of sellouts to the chinese, terrorists and the lunatic fringe of the left.. that assessment was pretty much spot on. i remember specifically in 1992 when clinton won the presidency.. i remember vividly the fact that many folks in texas and across the country voted for ross perot.. some of my best friends among them. well, what we got for that split in the conservative vote was billy clinton and what rivals jimmy carter for the worst presidency in the history of my lifetime.

reflecting on all of the ills that billy brought on our country would take too long and i only have so much time to type, but some of these latest stories coming from louis freeh's new book are astonishing. clinton dismisses freeh as a gop stooge, which is typical, however, it appears as if these stories are being substantiated by foreign leaders.. if ever there was evidence of negligence, if not utter failure, in protecting this country against terror, this is it.. crestfallen over monica, clinton fails.

Newsmax:
According to two sources close to former Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, ex-president Bill Clinton was on the verge of tears over legal woes brought on by the Monica Lewinsky scandal during a Sept. 1998 meeting with Crown Prince Adbullah - and spent almost no time discussing the Khobar Towers bombing case.
The Saudi account backs claims by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who told CBS's "60 Minutes" last night that Clinton failed to press Abdullah during the meeting for cooperation in the Khobar case.
Interviewed by the New Yorker in May 2001, two Saudi officials noted that Prince Bandar was present during the meeting. And Bandar's version, according to those same Saudi sources, contradicts the claim by former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger that his old boss vigorously pursued Khobar during the meeting.
"Clinton, by many accounts, was almost crying," the New Yorker said, based on interviews with the Saudis.

Bandar "remembered the crown prince consoling Clinton about his legal troubles. At one point, the crown prince, who was wearing a black robe, said to Clinton, 'All those who attack you and are making such a big issue out of this' - the Lewinsky affair - 'should be like the lint on my robes. One should just throw them off.'"
Addullah promised Clinton that he would "talk to people on the Hill and tell them they should respect the Presidency and not wipe the floor with it" over the Lewinsky case.
The Saudi sources said that while Clinton did eventually mention Khobar, "It was along the line of 'Would you be kind enough to continue cooperation?' "

Abdullah was stunned that Clinton had demonstrated so little interest about a bombing that had killed 19 U.S. airmen.
According to the New Yorker: Bandar had warned him to expect some "very important questions" about Khobar, but Clinton had not raised them.
"What's going on?" the bewildered Saudi leader asked his U.S. ambassador.
The effect of this meeting, Bandar's associates told the New Yorker, "was to persuade the crown prince that the [Khobar] case was no longer of great importance to the United States."

to recount the terror on US interests under clinton: WTC 1993, Riyad carbomb @ US military headquarters, Khobar towers 1996, Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 1998, USS Cole & the pakistani shooting of CIA agents in 1993 in Virginia.

Clinton also refused to kill or take in to custody OBL 2 times.. for a man obsessed with his legacy, he certainly left one for none of us to forget.

let it snow.. let it snow..

colorado is getting it's first big snowstorm.. 20 inches in some places !! while those of us in texas can only dream of such greatness.. the people in colorado probably wish they were here in the 75 degree weather..

AP:
A powerful storm that dropped up to 20 inches of snow in parts of Colorado knocked out power Monday to thousands of people, closed an 80-mile stretch of a major highway and trigged rock slides in the foothills.
Authorities said a 60-year-old Denver woman died after an 8-inch- diameter tree limb snapped off and struck her. No other details were available.
Authorities closed the main east-west route across Colorado, Interstate 70, from Denver east to Limon. Seventy miles of U.S. 24 from Limon southwest to Colorado Springs were also closed. A day earlier, the Red Cross opened a shelter for stranded travelers.
The storm cut off power to 25,000 homes and businesses in Denver when power lines snapped and transformers failed, Xcel Energy spokesman Tom Henley said.
"You could hear them popping," said Tom Hartman, who was shoveling snow outside the Schlessman Family YMCA in Denver when the transformers began to crackle and die.
Power had been restored by Monday to about 2,000 homes and businesses in Breckenridge.
Dozens of schools closed or were opening late, including three in the Denver area that closed because of power failures.
Two children were hospitalized with minor injuries after a school bus slid backward down a steep embankment south of Denver, Douglas County schools spokeswoman Carol Kaness said.
In southwestern Colorado, rain associated with the storm system was believed to have triggered two rock slides in San Miguel County, including one that shut down a lane of Colorado 145 near Telluride. No injuries were reported. Steady rain also caused two rock slides in Boulder Canyon northwest of Denver, forcing the closure of one lane of Colorado 119 and damaging a car. No one was hurt.
The National Weather Service had predicted up to 4 feet of snow in the southern Colorado mountains, but some of the snow melted and the precipitation turned to rain, leaving an accumulation of about a foot.
Snowfall amounts ranged from 20 inches in Breckenridge to 12 inches in Strasburg, about 20 miles east of Denver.
"I'm not going outside this morning," said Veronica Burke, associate manager of the Village Inn restaurant in Monument, near the 7,400- foot-high summit of Monument Hill between Denver and Colorado Springs.
The wind was blowing so hard, she said, it was hard to tell how much snow had fallen.
El Paso County Search and Rescue was called to help drivers who got stuck on snowy county roads east of Colorado Springs.
"We've got people out trying out the four-wheel-drive vehicles, and they're finding out they don't work very well," spokesman Steve Sperry said.
The American Red Cross opened a shelter Sunday for stranded travelers in Silverthorne after multiple accidents closed westbound Interstate 70 between Copper Mountain and Vail Pass for 2 1/2 hours late Sunday. Earlier, several tractor-trailers jackknifed on eastbound I-70 approaching the Eisenhower Tunnel.
A fire broke out near Keystone after the heavy, wet snow helped bring down a power line, but it was quickly put out. Wind and falling tree limbs downed other lines in the mountains, causing sporadic outages, Henley said.

blogger = journalist ?

bloggers beware - the government is starting to think about whether or not we are journalists and need to be considered under the shield law.. this could eventually lead to the de facto 'licensing' of journalists.. eek. i wonder how many would pass their background checks.. and if blogging does make me a journalist, i better get this blogging thing on my resume..

here is the article:


Shield Law Sponsor Lugar: Bloggers 'Probably Not' Considered Journos
By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: October 10, 2005 4:17 PM ET

INDIANAPOLIS Bloggers would "probably not" be considered journalists under the proposed federal shield law, the bill's co-sponsor, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.), told the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) Monday afternoon.Lugar emphasized, however, that debate is not yet closed on how to define a journalist under the proposed law. "As to who is a reporter, this will be a subject of debate as this bill goes farther along," he said in response to a question from Washington Post Deputy Managing Editor Milton Coleman. "Are bloggers journalists or some of the commercial businesses that you here would probably not consider real journalists? Probably not, but how do you determine who will be included in this bill?"According to the first draft of the Free Flow of Information Act of 2005, the "covered person" protected by the bill's terms includes "any entity that disseminates information by print, broadcast, cable, satellite, mechanical, photographic, electronic, or other means and that publishes a newspaper, book, magazine, or other periodical in print or electronic form; operates a radio or television station (or network of such stations), cable system, or satellite carrier, or channel or programming service for any such station, network, system, or carrier; or operates a news agency or wire service." The legislation also covers employees, contractors or other persons who "gathers, edits, photographs, records, prepares, or disseminates news or information for any such entity."A key reason some journalists oppose the popular federal shield proposal is fear that giving Congress the power to define who is and isn't a journalist could lead effectively to the licensing of journalists.In other remarks about the legislation at IAPA's 61st General Assembly, Lugar acknowledged that the legislation could amount to a "privilege" for reporters over other Americans."I think, very frankly, you can make a case that this is a special boon for reporters, and certainly for their role in freedom of the press," he said. "At the end of the day what we will come out with says there is something privileged about being a reporter, and being able to report on something without being thrown into jail."Lugar said he was inspired to write the legislation by the jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller. "I've known Judy Miller for many years," he said, adding that they became close when she was reporting on his efforts to dismantle the former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal.The bill is necessary to help the United States regain its status as an "exemplar" of press freedom, Lugar told the IAPA. "Even as we are advocating for free press (abroad)... we'd better clean up our own act," Lugar said.

apostasy..

well goodness.. our friends in the catholic church have come out and stated that the bible isn't quite 'all-true'. not that catholic's haven't been adding their own edits to the bible for some time, and since purgatory, a catholic doctrine, is no where found in the bible.. this isn't overly surprising. however, if you needed a good place to use the word apostate, you now have it.

the story:

The Times
October 05, 2005
Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.

The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.
“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say in The Gift of Scripture.
The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of the religious Right, in particular in the US.
Some Christians want a literal interpretation of the story of creation, as told in Genesis, taught alongside Darwin’s theory of evolution in schools, believing “intelligent design” to be an equally plausible theory of how the world began.
But the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and at times conflicting stories of creation are told, are among those that this country’s Catholic bishops insist cannot be “historical”. At most, they say, they may contain “historical traces”.
The document shows how far the Catholic Church has come since the 17th century, when Galileo was condemned as a heretic for flouting a near-universal belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible by advocating the Copernican view of the solar system. Only a century ago, Pope Pius X condemned Modernist Catholic scholars who adapted historical-critical methods of analysing ancient literature to the Bible.
In the document, the bishops acknowledge their debt to biblical scholars. They say the Bible must be approached in the knowledge that it is “God’s word expressed in human language” and that proper acknowledgement should be given both to the word of God and its human dimensions.
They say the Church must offer the gospel in ways “appropriate to changing times, intelligible and attractive to our contemporaries”.
The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: “We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.”
They go on to condemn fundamentalism for its “intransigent intolerance” and to warn of “significant dangers” involved in a fundamentalist approach.
“Such an approach is dangerous, for example, when people of one nation or group see in the Bible a mandate for their own superiority, and even consider themselves permitted by the Bible to use violence against others.”
Of the notorious anti-Jewish curse in Matthew 27:25, “His blood be on us and on our children”, a passage used to justify centuries of anti-Semitism, the bishops say these and other words must never be used again as a pretext to treat Jewish people with contempt. Describing this passage as an example of dramatic exaggeration, the bishops say they have had “tragic consequences” in encouraging hatred and persecution. “The attitudes and language of first-century quarrels between Jews and Jewish Christians should never again be emulated in relations between Jews and Christians.”
As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops cite the early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early creation legends from other cultures, especially from the ancient East. The bishops say it is clear that the primary purpose of these chapters was to provide religious teaching and that they could not be described as historical writing.
Similarly, they refute the apocalyptic prophecies of Revelation, the last book of the Christian Bible, in which the writer describes the work of the risen Jesus, the death of the Beast and the wedding feast of Christ the Lamb.
The bishops say: “Such symbolic language must be respected for what it is, and is not to be interpreted literally. We should not expect to discover in this book details about the end of the world, about how many will be saved and about when the end will come.”
In their foreword to the teaching document, the two most senior Catholics of the land, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, and Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrew’s and Edinburgh, explain its context.
They say people today are searching for what is worthwhile, what has real value, what can be trusted and what is really true.
The new teaching has been issued as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council document explaining the place of Scripture in revelation. In the past 40 years, Catholics have learnt more than ever before to cherish the Bible. “We have rediscovered the Bible as a precious treasure, both ancient and ever new.”
A Christian charity is sending a film about the Christmas story to every primary school in Britain after hearing of a young boy who asked his teacher why Mary and Joseph had named their baby after a swear word. The Breakout Trust raised £200,000 to make the 30-minute animated film, It’s a Boy. Steve Legg, head of the charity, said: “There are over 12 million children in the UK and only 756,000 of them go to church regularly.

That leaves a staggering number who are probably not receiving basic Christian teaching.”

PETAphilia

not only does daddy kill animals.. he eats them.

(this is the cover of an actual peta publication, btw)

if God didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them from meat. :-0

the 'judgement' of allah..

we heard a lot from our muslim friends about how katrina and rita were judgements against the united states - the wind of allah - if i remember correctly.. there were even some quotes from the koran to say that this was the s'trong wind cutting through the infadels' or somesuch.. as i look for explanations of the massive loss of life in two of the most populus muslim countries due to earthquakes and related tsunami over the course of the last 11 months, i don't seem to see the same rhetoric. yet, truth be told, we will see over 200,000 people die in predominantly muslim lands from natural disasters in less than a year.. what message is allah sending to his faithful ? what is all of this to mean ? and to have this occur during ramadan.. blasphemous.

russia moves forwad with syrian arms deal...

as if this part of the world wasn't unstable enough, we now are seeing russia reneg on it's agreement with israel and the usa to not sell advanced arms to syria.. these new weapons platforms will create strategic problems for israel which could lead to increased tension between those two countries. additionally, this now puts us forces in iraq within range of some very advanced weaponry. i think it's just a matter of time before the us, israel and syria get all tangled up. just last week there was significant debate on whether to launch attacks inside syria to go after iraqi insurgents. we know damascus is close to being destroyed.. this might be the lead up to that.. more information on the weapons deal and political ramifications from DEBKAfile:

Two generals were in Moscow on the same day, September 26: the head of Israel’s National Security Council Maj.-Gen (Res.) Giora Eiland and the Syrian chief of staff General Ali Habib. Both also called on the Russian chief of staff, Gen. Yuri Baluyevski. The Syrian general came out of his meeting with a brilliant contract for the sale of the advanced Iskander SS-26 surface missile. The Israeli general ran into a blank wall when he tried to persuade the Russian to withhold the missile from the Assad regime. Last January, when the deal was first broached, the Bush administration stepped in and obtained a promise from president Vladimir Putin to call off the sale, as did Israel’s Ariel Sharon during the Russian president’s visit in May.
Putin has broken those pledges.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 224 revealed in its detailed report on September 30 -
For a speedy delivery in the first quarter of 2006, the Syrians paid cash.
The value of the transaction is unknown but it certainly runs into hundreds of million dollars, given that Syria has purchased 26 of the most advanced missile of its kind in use anywhere in the world.
The United States and NATO have code-named the Iskander SS-26 “Stone.” They have nothing in their missile arsenal to match its unique attributes.
With a 400-km range and a 480-kilo warhead composed of 54 elements, the missile hits a target within a 20-meter radius. Two missiles with a range of 280km are mounted on each launch pad. The system can be used against small and large targets alike, easily overcoming air defenses. It is almost impossible for existing electronic weapons systems to prevent the Iskander’s launch because of its speed and high flexibility. Its targets are found in mid-flight by satellites, accompanying airplanes, conventional intelligence centers or a lone soldier directing artillery fire. Targets may also be found by feeding photos into the missile’s computer by means of a scanner.
The self-direction device functions even in fog, darkness or storms. The name Iskander is Alexander (the Great) in the Turkoman language. Weighing 3,800 kilos it is operated by a crew of three. It comes in two versions: the 500-kilo version provided the Russian Army and the 280-kilo missile sold to Syria.
So impressive is the Russian “Stone”, that in 2004, the Americans sought to include it in various treaties signed with Russia for precluding the manufacture and sale of certain weapons. Moscow balked. A Western missile expert says: “Even a small quantity of these missiles is capable of radically changing the balance of strength in local conflicts.” It is a strategic weapon for countries with a small area like Syria.
Nine months ago, on January 12, 2005, Moscow “leaked” the news of a big new arms deal with Syria that included the following missiles: the Iskander SS-26, SA-10 Grumble ground-to-air, and SA-18 Grouse (Igla 9K38) shoulder-launched anti-air missiles capable of hitting objects at an altitude of 3,600 meters and range of 5,200 meters.
Israeli raised the ceiling over this transaction as radically shifting the balance of strength between the Jewish state and Syria. Washington embarked on a quiet diplomatic dialogue to deter Damascus from acquiring the new hardware, maintaining it posed a threat to the US army in Iraq.
After weeks of palaver and pressure, president Vladimir Putin and defense minister Sergei Ivanov relented and promised Washington and Jerusalem to withhold the Iskander SS-26 from Syria. The other items would have their aggressive options “neutered” and rendered fit for defensive use alone.
It is now clear that Putin’s promise to the Americans and Israelis to withhold the missile’s sale was no more than a time-winning ploy until an opportunity presented itself to go through with the transaction.
DEBKAfile’s military experts add four points:
1. Assad had need of a sop to his armed forces if he intends to go through with the exercise DEBKA revealed earlier, to follow in Muammar Qaddafi’s footsteps and make his peace with Washington. The Syrian ruler will demonstrated that he is the only Middle East leader capable of providing his army with a weapons system as sophisticated Iskander SS-22. This may divert the generals from plotting to overthrow him if he throws some of his top security officers to the wolves over the Hariri assassination.
2. Putin’s motivation in breaking his promises to Bush and Sharon is his fundamental urge to show Washington and Paris they are not the only players in the Middle East and Syrian-Lebanese arena. He hopes by the missile sale to prevent the Assad regime from collapsing.
3. The Bush administration refrained from interceding in the deal this because, as DEBKA revealed before, the White House has not yet decided finally whether to finally topple Assad or let him survive. Washington’s silence on the missile sale points to the latter option.
4. Israel’s failure to stop the delivery even after the kudos Sharon collected over the pullout from Gaza means that the country’s basic security situation and international influence remain unchanged by the sacrifice of its strategic presence in Gaza.

congrats longhorn fans..

here's to y'all staying #2

noble peas prize..

as if we needed any further examples of what a sham the nobel peace prize is.. it has been awarded to mohamed elbaradei and the international atomic energy agency.. under his guiding hand, we're watching the creation of an atomic iran, we've seen north korea continue their atomic ways and we've seen india and pakistan go nuclear. pakistan's network, undetected by the sleuths in the iaea has gone on to provide expertise, materials and blueprints for just about every rogue group known to man kind.. all under the nose of mohamed.. hmm.. frankly, any oversight agency in the command of the un leaves a lot to be desired.. we've seen 2 of the largest genocide campaigns unfold in the last 10 years.. all under the careful watch of the un.. as they host their 'how many dead people does it take to equal a genocide' meetings.

the un is a worthless debating society.. the iaea is a failure.. and the members continue to stand up and applaud their achievements for mankind.

for the longhorn in all of us..

like mama said, find what you're good at and stick to it..

fascist pigs..

pigs are being outlawed in britain these days.. they are finding themselves excluded from childrens books, excluded from toy stores and excluded from the workplace.. in a further instance of pc run amuck - muslims in england are single handedly removing the pig from public life..

“It’s a tolerance of people’s beliefs.” so Mahbubur Rahman says.. he's a muslim conselor in britain.. childrens books are having pigs removed from the stories... even the workplace is seeing pigs banned. winnie and the pooh's friend piglet ?? excommunicated.. pig shaped squeeze toys.. beheaded. PIGGY BANKS !!! forget about it.

this all in the name of allah.. pigs are such vile representations that our muslim friends are offended by their mere presence. this is what happens when cultures acquiesce to political correctness.

in the united states, where we are exterminating all representations of Christianity, it's just a matter of time before a similar pig hunt occurs.. we are very familiar with CAIR's efforts to rework the image of islam in america.. asking for apologies from companies and movie studios for their representations of muslims as terrorists... *GASP* we continue to pave the road for the ideology which wants to see our freedoms taken away. and once again we see how the truth is often cast aside to protect the feelings of a minority.

more ramadan news..

from middle east news line:

LONDON [MENL] -- European intelligence agencies are quietly warning of another major attack by Al Qaida.
European intelligence sources said at least one security agency in the European Union has received information of Al Qaida plans to strike either Britain, Italy or the Netherlands this month. The sources said insurgency cells in Europe were being directed by Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, commander of Al Qaida in Iraq.
"European security services right now are obsessed with the problem of European Muslims going to Iraq and returning to their countries for violence," Daniel Byman, director of Center for Peace and Security Studies, said. "And this is a problem that's likely to grow in the coming years."
The planned Al Qaida strikes were meant to coincide with the Islamic fast month of Ramadan, expected to begin over the next 48 hours. Islamic insurgency groups have reserved Ramadan for major strikes in such places as Algeria, Iraq and Israel.

the 'great' ramadan offensive..

if you hadn't circled your calendar or sent greeting cards yet, remember - ramadan starts tomorrow. (i'd like a new pair of red wing boots for ramadan, btw) so, what does ramadan mean to you and me ? other than our muslim friends cannot eat during daylight hours ?? (for you cheap folks, take em to lunch this month)

well, this year, ramadan brings a special surprise, according to some of our most treasured names in terrorism..

from aina.org news concerning an Ivan Bodansky report..

Details of the planned attacks were pieced together from intercepted communications between top al Qaeda leaders in the latter part of August, analysis of what counter- terrorism experts described as a dramatic increase in the volume of communication among jihad forces and the observation of an unprecedented movement of jihadists and messengers around the world apparently delivering instructions.
Zarqawi, linked to numerous bombings and the beheadings of several Western hostages in Iraq, reportedly titled his letter to bin Laden, "A Message from a Soldier to His Commander." According to the GIS report, Zarqawi's letter to bin Laden alluded to "the forthcoming grand offensive comprised of escalation in the Middle East and a series of spectacular terrorist strikes" meant to overshadow the impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes in New York City and Washington, D.C.

The letter also indicated Zarqawi was expecting bin Laden to approve and authorize the escalation: "I think that the plan for the next stage that was drawn up has reached you or is on its way to you. O God. Make the expedition of Osama proceed toward its goal ... We await your orders as to the next stage of the plan," Zarqawi wrote.

An Aug. 8 televised message from bin Laden's overall second-in-command -- Ayman al-Zawahiri - is now viewed as the approval Zarqawi was anticipating. "What you have seen, O Americans, in New York and Washington and the losses you are having in Afghanistan and Iraq, in spite of all the media blackout, are only the losses of the initial clashes ... You will see the horror that will make you forget what you had seen in Vietnam," Zawahiri said.
The al Qaeda official's threat, according to the report, wasn't delivered until the jihad forces were organized and ready to strike.

The GIS report also cites an Aug. 21 message recorded by Zarqawi, which references the next phase of the terrorist jihad. "The [mujahedeen] in Iraq, have, praise be to God, moved the battle from the ground (in Iraq) to the land of the cross."

Zarqawi's message claimed that "[J]ihadist units have been founded in all of Western Europe, to defend the powerless within the nation. For the crimes the Crusaders have committed against the Muslims, they will reap in their own homes, God willing."

A few days later, according to GIS, a doctrinal statement from Zarqawi emerged, which stressed the priority of al Qaeda in Iraq establishing "another base that will export jihad to all parts of the world the same way the mother al Qaeda in Afghanistan was."

'The heart and lair of the Great Satan'

Bodansky's report states that "concrete preparations for the consolidation of Islamist-jihadist springboards against the heart and lair of the Great Satan are being completed -- for Western Europe in the Balkans, for Russian and Eastern Europe in Chechnya, and for the United States in the tri-border area in Latin America."

Widespread anticipation throughout the Muslim world of the Great Ramadan Offensive was being picked up by intelligence analysts in August and then was reinforced by a slew of theological statements -- all buttressing what the GIS report calls "a forthcoming, well-coordinated global onslaught."

The marked increase in the volume of communication, both encrypted and open, exceeded that of the months prior to September 2001, the report states.

Katrina & Rita a sign ?

Terrorist leaders may also have taken the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina as a symbol that God is pleased with their plans to launch the "Great Ramadan Offensive," according to the GIS report.

"Allah has punished America with winds and water," said one imam quoted in the report. America is under "the curse of the Jews," said another.

"It's clear the jihadists regarded Katrina as a sign from God they're doing the right thing," said Gregory R. Copley, president of The International Strategic Studies Association in Washington, D.C.

In a separate analysis, Christopher Brown, research associate with the Hudson Institute's Transitions to Democracy project, warned of the strategic opening that the hurricane aftermath offers jihadists.

"If this attack is launched soon, the devastation to the American economy alone could easily far exceed that of the September 11th attacks and could be equivalent in terms of economic impact to the detonation of a small nuclear device on American soil," Brown said.

He also suggested that the timing of Zawahiri's past video messages indicates a terrorist attack may be imminent.

His first messages, on Sept. 9 and Nov. 9 of 2004, preceded the Dec. 6, 2004 attack on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Feb. 20 and June 17, 2005 video messages by Zawahiri preceded the July 7 series of bombings in London. A third set of messages - on Aug. 4 and Sept. 1 - also creates cause for concern, Brown contends.

"If the pattern that has been outlined holds true," says Brown, "then al Qaeda is very likely about to launch a new major or series of major attacks within the next month."

Copley agreed, telling Cybercast News Service that, "I think Europe is going to be a prime target, but I think there's no question the U.S. is very much on the schedule.
"There will be big things happening over the next few months," he added.

Ramadan, a religious observance which includes a period of fasting, is scheduled according to the Islamic calendar. This year it is scheduled from Oct. 4 to Nov. 2. Muslim soldiers on the battlefield are exempt from Ramadan.

who really knows what these jokers are up to (other than not going out for lunch).. but it is interesting to note that there is a fair amount of chatter on this subject that isn't making it to mainstream news services.. so take it for what it's worth..

losing the race..

if ever you needed an example of how not to finish a race, look no farther than our president. george has decided to take hold of the steering wheel and pull it firmly to the left. compassionate conservatism has run amuck. . i've been thinking this for some time, but out of respect for some of the things the president has done up to this point, i've held my tongue.. but this is borderline unforgivable.

in no way am i besmirching harriet's character or her accomplisments in her career, however, in a time when we need proven conservative, constructionist representation on the supreme court, this pick comes out of left field. Alito, Luttig, Brown, etc.. all would have been proven jurists that would have inspired the conservative base to rally around the president and have hope for the future.

this, combined with a disasterous policy on immigration, out of control spending and a bad policy toward israel - forcing them to give up land.. this is not what i voted for. this is not what conservatives in america showed up in record numbers for.. an unprecidented mandate was provided to this president in the 2004 elections - since that time, the administration and congress has seemed to be more concerned with playing nice with the minority party rather than setting an agenda for america and moving forward.

this type of pansy attitude will result in the base staying home next election - or splitting the republican party resulting in gains for the democrats. the usa wants strong, conservative leadership - this is proven by the majority in both houses and the presidency being held by the 'conservative' party..

as we move forward, we're watching the democrats become socialist/marxist.. we're watching the republicans become democrats and conservatives are beginning to have no party at all.

all of this being said, harriet may end up being an uber-originalist and to the right of Scalia.. i just don't feel as if this is the right time to send mixed signals to a rapidly eroding base of support.. bush has made solid choices up to this point on his judicial nominations, but this one is a head scratcher - her crowning achivements leave a lot to be desired - dallas city council (worthless), texas lottery commission (worthless), and meals on wheels.. ok, well, maybe i'm minimizing her accomplishments.. she has legit work done with the aba and texas bar, but i think the conservative base wants a proven constructionalist with a pro-life record that we can be proud of and certain of.

but, she is the nominee - he's been good on judges before, we've got to hope he'll be good on judges again..